


A Being Human Carol

by StrangeBlueGlow



Category: Being Human (US/Canada)
Genre: A Christmas Carol, Alternate Universe, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-24
Updated: 2012-12-24
Packaged: 2017-11-22 08:01:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/607617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrangeBlueGlow/pseuds/StrangeBlueGlow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A re-telling of A Christmas Carol, Being Human style, featuring Aidan as the Scrooge analog.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Stave 1: Rebecca's Appearance

**Author's Note:**

> Because Bishop loved Aidan, and Aidan left him as a pile of dust on the floor of an abandoned factory. And that clearly worked out so well for everyone.
> 
> Set in the middle of the first season, but has spoilers for the end of the second.
> 
> Merry Christmas!

It was the 24th of December and a light snow was falling in Boston, covering the surroundings of Suffolk County Hospital with a thin layer of white. Aidan Waite, a nurse there and a vampire, was waiting for his shift to end, and heading for the room where they stored the blood, needing something for his Christmas dinner, although he didn't think of it as such. He had never been one for the holiday, not since before his heart stopped beating in his chest. He felt it incongruous with being a monster as he was, or at least that's what he told himself. 

Aidan's whole week had been particularly long, and he was particularly hungry, to the point where he didn't have to fake feeling slightly faint to get out of assisting in a surgery, the blood there being too much for him. He was certainly in no mood to see the figure who had just joined him in the elevator.

"Hello, Aidan." Bishop, Aidan's maker, said with a smile. He was out of uniform, wearing a somewhat garish sweater featuring an alternating pattern of trees and reindeer instead of his Boston Police Department get up. 

"What are you doing here?" Aidan asked, barely suppressed a snarl. Aidan was trying to do good, be a better monster, as he had so many times in the past only to be dragged back by his maker. He wasn't going to let that happen again.

"I'm visiting Officer McKinney, he's from my precinct. He'd been shot in the line of duty last week and he hasn't been released yet, so I thought I'd stop by and see him on the holiday."

Aidan narrowed his eyes. "Why are you /really/ here?"

Bishop sighed a longsuffering sigh. "You're not the center of the universe, Aidan. Not everything revolves around you. I'm really here to see ol' Mic. But, since I ran into you, I'd like to invite you to spend Christmas with me. You're probably spending it with your dog and that ghost you're playing house with, but I want you to know that you're welcome."

"I don't want to be welcome," Aidan spat. "Just leave me the hell alone, Bishop." 

The elevator stopped to let in more people, and Aidan pushed past them, deciding to take the stairs to his floor rather than spend another second with Bishop. 

~

Eventually, Aidan's shift did come to an end, and he stuffed a few blood bags into his duffel, changing before heading home, ready for his day to be over.

He opened the door, nearly running into Josh in foyer. "Whoa, where are you going?"

"I work all day tomorrow, so tonight, I am going to see a movie, and get Chinese food." Josh replied with a grin as he grabbed his jacket.

"Way to live the stereotype," Aidan grumbled, causing Josh to frown as he walked out. 

Aidan continued into the living room, where Sally sat on the couch, watching some Christmas special on the tv.

"I wonder if Danny is watching "It's A Wonderful Life" alone this year. We watched it together last year. I started crying at the end, you know, when the bell rang, and I had to blow my nose on his shirt 'cause we were out of tissues," Sally said, the slightest whine to her voice, her eyes glued to the screen as a young George Bailey wished he had a million dollars.

"Go haunt him and find out." Aidan groaned, sounding more annoyed than he intended to.

Sally was taken aback by Aidan's tone and frowned. "Maybe I will, Mr. Grinch."

"It's been a long day, just leave me alone." Aidan grumbled as he continued into the kitchen, stocking the fridge with his hospital blood and squeezing some into a cup and putting it in the microwave.

"Merry Christmas to you, too." Sally sighed as she disappeared from the living room.

Aidan waited impatiently by the microwave until it beeped, removing the mug and making a pleased noise as he sipped the warmed blood. He wandered into the living room and shut the television off, putting his feet up on the couch and leaning back, drinking in silence.

As he finished his blood, he heard a knock at the door. Aidan figured it was just Josh, who might've forgotten his wallet and keys and had to turn around and come back for them. Instead, he was greeted by the sight for Rebecca, a vampire he hadn't turned, but was responsible for none the less, yet another person he really didn't want to see that evening.

"Why are you such an asshole!?" Rebecca shouted the moment Aidan opened the door.

The redhead entered the house, which put up a few red flags in Aidan's mind, as vampires couldn't cross a threshold uninvited and he was certain he hadn't told her to come in. But he didn't have time to think too deeply as Rebecca continued talking.

"I've been watching you, Aidan. You've been a dick to everyone you've ran into this past week. Every nurse and orderly, patients, people on the street. And I know you've seen me, and did I get so much as a nod in my direction? Nope. It's not like it's your fault that I'm undead or anything. I certainly don't deserve common courtesy." Rebecca huffed, leaving Aidan speechless for a moment.

"Can't a guy have a bad week?" Aidan finally said in his defense, putting his arm across the doorway into the rest of the house, hoping that Rebecca would take it as a sign to not try to step in further and just leave him alone.

"Ugh," Rebecca huffed again, "Christmas is not the time to have a bad week. You've been around long enough to have watched every Christmas special there is when it originally aired. Haven't you learned anything from any of them?"

Aidan rolled his eyes. "Life doesn't work the way it does in Christmas specials." 

"Whatever. Someone ought to teach you a lesson or something." And then Rebecca was gone as quick as she had appeared, the door closed harshly behind her.

Aidan glanced at the door and shook his head, chalking the incident up to Rebecca being Rebecca and pushing the oddness of her coming in uninvited out of his mind. 

Somewhere on the street, a drunk from the bar down the block shouted "Merry Christmas!"

Aidan had to stifle a "Bah! Humbug!" as he locked the doors and turned off all the lights, then went upstairs and crawled into bed, planning to sleep until the holiday was over and no one was trying to force Christmas cheer upon him.


	2. Stave 2: The First of Three Spirits

Somewhere, a bell chimed 12 on Christmas Morning, pulling Aidan from his light sleep. He groggily opened his eyes to see a sweater standing before him. That sweater was filled out by an all too familiar figure with brilliant blond hair and blue eyes.

"Bishop!?" You - you can't be in here. No one would have invited you in." Aidan sat upright and scrambled back from the figure.

"Vampires can't come in uninvited. Vampires who happen to be the Ghost of Christmas Past for the evening get an exception." Bishop smiled warmly, a light seeming to radiate from him, causing Aidan's eyes to hurt.

The younger vampire raised a hand to cover his eyes. "What? Just- Just leave me alone."

The spirit shook his head. "I'm sorry, I can't do that. I'm here to save you, Aidan."

"I don't need to be saved," Aidan said flatly.

"You'll see soon enough that you do." Bishop stepped closer, holding out his hand as though he wanted Aidan to take ahold of it. "Come on, I can stand here all night if I have to. I just want to show you that Christmas doesn't have to be like it is this year. Trust me; I'm not going to hurt you."

"If I'm supposed to trust you, why are you appearing to me as Bishop?" Aidan peered through his fingers at the figure in front of him suspiciously.

"Who better to take you through your life than someone who's been with you for most of it?" Bishop replied, still holding his hand out.

It was another long moment before Aidan tentatively reached out, touching the figure in front of him's outstretched hand. 

Suddenly, he found himself hurtling through time, landing in a snowdrift outside a small house it took him a moment to recognize.

"This was my father's house," Aidan said softly, marveling at the memory, far more clear than his own remaining one of this place. He let Bishop pull him up out of the snow and brushed himself off, stepping closer to the house but stopping just before peering in the window, turning to Bishop as though asking for permission.

Bishop nodded. "We're just phantoms here. You can do whatever you want."

A small smile crossed Aidan's face as he looked through the glass, seeing himself as a child, sitting and reading a book, not even yet bound, freshly printed the day before on his father's printing press.

"That wasn't a Christmas present." Bishop said, his tone something between a statement and a question.

"No, Christmas wasn't really a thing for nearly another lifetime. Outlawed up here. The first taste of it I got was during the war when some Southerners were in my unit who talked about decorating with holly and caroling and all that.

With that, Bishop put his hand on Aidan's shoulder and sent them hurtling through time once more. 

This time, Aidan found himself in the corner of a different house, one he remembered better. He stood speechless, watching himself, looking no younger than he looked now, explaining Christmas traditions he'd heard of from fellow soldiers to his family.

"My wife, she looked so disapproving. She was a good Puritan. Thought that stuff was a pathway to Hell." Aidan reminisced quietly, taking note of how his son's eyes lit up as he told him of Christmas feasts he'd heard of.

Bishop nodded. "That didn't stop her from cooking a slightly special meal in future years."

"No, it didn't, not when we had a guest..." Aidan shook his head slightly, and the scene before him shifted from a year he'd been able to be home early in the war to the end of it, after he'd been turned, and a friend and fellow soldier sat at the table with him and his family.

"Bishop..." Aidan whispered, trailing off.

"Joined you for Christmas that year. You still thought you could have it all and Bishop - I - was willing to indulge you." The spirit finished.

Aidan nodded. "They..."

Bishop completed Aidan's thought for him again. “They weren't around for the next one."

"No." The younger vampire shook his head.

"But Bishop was."

"Yeah." 

Time shifted around them, moving forward one year, to Aidan and Bishop, and Marcus, too, celebrating the holiday in secret.

"Bishop had been around before anyone had declared anything too popeish. He was still too Catholic for his own good and was used to celebrating in secret. It wasn't hard to keep secrets like that when you had to keep everything you were hidden... We gorged ourselves on some poor farmer's family that year." Aidan said softly, watching the three of them feed.

The spirit nodded once more, placing his hand on Aidan's shoulder again and taking him through time, showing him glimpses of more years, years spent with Bishop and a few without. 

Aidan couldn't help but notice he seemed happier in the ones spent with Bishop. 

He saw how Bishop seemed to get happier as celebrating Christmas openly came in vogue again in the 1800s, letting it be one less thing Bishop had to keep secret. He saw how he had wished he was back in Boston with Bishop the years he was off fighting the Civil War.

Time finally slowed again, and it took Aidan a moment to realize what the scene he was looking at was. 

"Do you know what year we're in, Aidan?" Bishop asked.

"1918." Aidan finally replied. "Just a couple weeks after I brought Henry home."

"It was a little bittersweet for me. My boy going off and turning someone of his own, who looked up to him with all the adoration you had for me and more. It was a nice Christmas. We had the woman behind the counter at the butcher shop." Bishop said softly as Aidan watched the scene, three generations of vampires exchanging small presents between each other before going off to find someone to eat. 

Years passed around them again, a few more Christmases with Henry, and then it was just Aidan and Bishop once more. 

They jumped through time again, this time appearing in an apartment that Aidan recognized immediately.

"The year Jane let Bishop invite me to spend Christmas with them." Aidan said softly.

"That's right," the spirit smiled.

Aidan shook his head a little. "I wasn't so fond of the idea, but I don't think I've ever seen Bishop so happy." He really hadn't. He'd never seen a grin so broad on his maker's face as there was when Bishop had the woman he loved to one side and the man he made to the other.

"I hadn't been." Bishop sighed, as time lurched forward slightly to the first Christmas post-Jane.

It had been a hard year and neither being said anything about how Bishop had spent it locked away, going over paperwork for Sapp & Sons, to Aidan's disappointment.

His hand still on Aidan's shoulder, the spirit took Aidan to another Christmas.

"Celine!" Aidan gasped as he saw the woman he had once loved so. When she didn't react, he remembered that he couldn't interact with the past, and he had to be content with just watching her try to pick out a present for Aidan in secret while on a shopping trip. Aidan had seen what she was getting him, a small pendant he'd now long since lost, shortly after he'd lost her, but he loved it all the same.

The scene faded to his Christmas the next year. He was with Bishop again. 

The gears in Aidan's mind turned, going over all the years he'd just been shown. Whether war or peace, in or out of love, feast or famine, the common thread in so many of them was Bishop.

Finally, the spirit showed him one last Christmas.

"This was only three years ago." Aidan said as though questioning why they were here.

"It still counts as the past. Do you know why I've brought you to this one?" the spirit replied.

After a moment, Aidan nodded. "This was the most recent Christmas I've spent with Bishop."

The spirit nodded, and Aidan watched the good time being had by Bishop, Marcus, and himself, all three having gorged themselves and being half blood drunk as they exchanged gifts.

"Marcus and I said we'd get one thing and put both our names on it. But I knew he'd go behind my back and get Bishop something else, so I did the same to him." Aidan nearly chuckled as he watched Marcus's heart sink at how Bishop loved the letter opener that Aidan had gotten him in addition to the desk organizer they'd said was from both of them. But Aidan could have gotten Bishop anything and he would have loved it.

After a moment, Aidan turned to Bishop. "Take me home," he said sharply, having had enough of the reminiscing, enough of thinking of Bishop. He didn't want that life anymore. He didn't want to be around Bishop who only ever dragged him back into it whenever he tried to flee. He didn't. He couldn't take it. "Just take me home."

The spirit appearing to him as Bishop sighed, holding out his hand once more. 

Aidan took it immediately, and the spirit returned him to his bedroom, now pitch black without the light emanating from Bishop to brighten it. He was thankful for that as he climbed under the covers and shut his eyes, trying to force himself back to sleep once more.


	3. Stave 3: The Second of Three Spirits

Aidan had barely fallen into a light sleep when a bell tolled one, causing him to groan and roll over in an attempt to find a more comfortable position. His eyes were barely open, but he still noticed a figure in the room. 

"Sally? I'm sorry for being a dick earlier, but I just had the weirdest dream and do /not/ want to talk about it. Whatever it is that's going on with you can wait until morning."

Sally sighed heavily. "Wow, Aidan. You've had since Dickens published A Christmas Carol to read it and you still don't know the story?"

"What are you talking about?" Aidan sat up, having given up on getting back to sleep.

"Hello? Ghost of Christmas Present." Sally motioned to herself and only received a blank stare from Aidan. "You live with a ghost and didn't expect me to be roped into being one of the three spirits?"

Aidan blinked a few times, wondering if maybe there was something wrong with that blood he had before bed. Finally he shook his head and decided to roll with it. "Okay, so you're the Ghost of Christmas Present."

"Great, now let's get going. Grab my cardigan, and we'll do the whole 'check out your contemporaries and their celebrations' thing." Sally held out the corner of her sweater as Aidan climbed out of bed once more.

"Grab your sweater?" Aidan said a little skeptically.

Sally sighed again. "Look, they let me get away with not filling the house with food and calling out 'Come, and know me better man!' we have to do the taking my robe thing. Just do it."

Aidan huffed, and took the corner of Sally's sweater. "Alright." 

With a smile, Aidan and Sally were suddenly standing in the middle of a street. 

"Where are we?" Aidan asked.

"We're outside my parents' house. I'm moping a little as they spend another Christmas without me, but even though they don't know I'm here, I'm spending it with them. And it's better than being stuck in the house with you," the spirit replied, noticing that Aidan looked in the window at Sally moping and her family celebrating, then back to her. "Don't think about it too hard. I'm just here because I'm a ghost and it fit, now come on, let's see what Josh is doing."

Aidan shook his head, not thinking about the weirdness of having characters in the story play both out of in- and out of - universe rolls and followed Sally through the streets of Boston.

Christmas music and the smells of turkey and ham and beef drifted from houses with thin windows. Slush clogged the traffic filled roads. Families carried stacks of presents from cars and were greeted at doors with hearty "Merry Christmas!"es.

"See how no one is being a total dick to anyone else?" Sally said pointedly.

"People are allowed to have bad days, Sally." Aidan sighed and continued following Sally through the city. It was filled with Christmas spirit, and he couldn't help but slowly be infected with it, a smile slowly appearing on his face.

Eventually, Sally and Aidan ended up at the hospital. 

"You know Josh is Jewish, right? I doubt he's really going to be doing anything special for the holiday." Aidan said as he continued to follow the spirit.

"Oh really?" Sally stopped outside the room of an elderly patient. Aidan looked inside to find Josh wearing a Santa hat and chatting cheerily with her, wishing her a Merry Christmas and assuring her that she'd still be around the next year and would be out of the hospital, somewhere closer to her family.

Aidan rolled his eyes. "Okay, so Josh is making someone's day brighter. That's Josh." 

"That's the spirit of the season, Aidan!" Sally held out the corner of her sweater again. "There's still more to show you."

The vampire took ahold of the spirit's sweater and found himself standing outside another home. Aidan looked into the window and saw a family around a tree, some looking a little somber, some looking more than a little drunk despite the fact that it couldn't have been much past 11AM, but still enjoying the holiday season. He couldn't place any of the people. "whose house is this?"

Sally nodded in the direction of the alleyway to the side of the house, where another figure stood watching the family from afar.

"Rebecca..."

"She's making sure they found the presents she'd bought for them before she 'died' when they cleaned out her place. Even though she can't be in there with them 'cause they think she's dead, she's still spending the holiday watching them be happy." The spirit grabbed at the corner of her cardigan again, indicating that there was still more to see.

Aidan took it and suddenly they were somewhere he didn't recognize at all, but he immediately recognized the face of someone on the street.

Henry was walking, the collar of his coat up and his hands shoved in his pockets to help protect him from the light drizzle that was falling around him. He bid a complete stranger a Merry Christmas as he turned the corner and passed them.

"Henry is somewhere in the greater Seattle area. He's been holding up. And even though he's alone, he still has the holiday spirit."

Aidan kept watching Henry until he walked out of view before turning to Sally, his hand still gripping her sweater. "Yeah, yeah, I get it. Isn't this a lot of work just to teach me not to be a jerk on Christmas?"

"We're still not done, Aidan." Sally shook her head and took them to yet another place.

Aidan recognized the blood den, filled with a handful of girls willing to bleed for the vampires of Boston who were hanging around, not wanting to spend the holidays alone. In the middle of them all was Marcus, cheery and blood drunk. "It's a wonder he isn't with Bishop..." Aidan grumbled, unhappy with himself for thinking of Bishop at all.

"He wanted to be. Bishop turned him away. " Sally waited a moment until Aidan had a questioning look on his face before taking them to Bishop's apartment.

It'd had a fresh coat of paint since the last time Aidan had seen it, but it was mostly the same. A couch and chair in the main room in front of a tv, with a small tree in the corner. He looked at the few presents under it, assuming they were to Bishop from fellow police officers, or perhaps just empty boxes wrapped in colorful paper to fill space.

They had tags. "To: Aidan. From: Bishop."

Aidan swallowed hard, suddenly overcome with the thought that even though he had ran, that he'd hated Bishop and he was rebuking and even endangering him at every turn, Bishop had still thought of him, still had enough hope that he would have accepted the invitation and came over for Christmas.

“He’s gotten you a present every year, you know. Whether you were with him or at war or had ran off somewhere.” Sally said softly.

Having no response, Aidan simply watched as Bishop sat alone in his living room, waiting to see if anyone would show up. A glance at the clock told him that it was late in the day, nearly midnight, but Bishop still waited. 

“It’s been… nearly two hundred and fifty years… And he’s thought of me, gone out of his way to get me a gift for every one of them?”

Sally nodded as Bishop glanced at the clock and sighed, getting up and turning the light off a few minutes before midnight. “Yep.”

“Wow… It’s like he… loves me…” Aidan whispered.

“Ding ding ding.” Sally approximated the winning sound from some game show that only aired in reruns at 2AM anymore.

Aidan was speechless for a long moment. “And I’ve been being a dick to him for centuries...”

Sally attempted to put a hand on Aidan’s shoulder comfortingly, but it phased through him. “He’s got big things planned, Aidan. Things he’s planned, at least in part, because he wants you to be happy. But you’re so wrapped up in yourself, just like you’ve always been…”

“What’s going to happen, Sally?” Aidan asked, his voice nearly shaking.

“I’m only the Ghost of Christmas Present. I don’t know. But I have a feeling that it isn’t good…”

The clock chimed 12, and Sally and the room began to fade to darkness, leaving Aidan alone.


	4. Stave 4: The Final Spirit

Aidan wanted to wake up already, for it to be Christmas morning, to run to the gas station and buy something ridiculous and cheap and seemingly thoughtless, but it’d be /something/ and it would make Bishop smile. Bishop was ruthless and vicious and powerful /he loved Aidan/. He wasn’t sure why he hadn’t seen it before. Bishop would burn the world for Aidan, and that’s what Aidan was afraid he might do. Spending Christmas with his maker might not be enough to stop it, but it couldn’t hurt.

The dark silence stretched for what felt like far too long to Aidan, but all he could do was wait. 

A swirling cloud of dust appeared before him silently, and Aidan stared at it in awe.

“Y-you’re the third spirit? There’s three, right? Past, present, and future? You’re here to show me what will happen if I don’t change?” Aidan’s voice shook as he spoke.

The spirit said nothing as the world came into focus around them. They were in an alleyway. Slush from dirty rain fallen atop snow soaked into Aidan’s socks, and he saw Henry, not looking half as good as he did in Christmas present.

“But… I recognize that store across the street. Why is Henry in back Boston?” Aidan’s face twisted in confusion.

The spirit only lead him through the streets of Boston once more. They entered Sapp & Sons, when they reached it. There was some new furniture, and no sign of Bishop or Marcus or any other vampire Aidan recognized.

Aidan ran to the blood den, not finding anyone he knew very well there either.

Something cold grew in the pit of Aidan’s stomach, wondering where everyone was.

He looked to the spirit, but it gave no answers. He couldn’t find Josh at the hospital, and the only thing at the house was a staticy radio that was left on.

Finally, he went to Bishop’s apartment, hoping against hope his maker was there, but found a family he’d never seen before living there. Aidan turned to the spirit “Spirit, what happened? Where is everyone?”  
The dust swirled around Aidan in reply, taking him to Mother’s estate, to a room that Aidan had no clue of what would happen there, but he felt that something terrible had happened there even though it had been cleaned up and abandoned some time before his arrival.

He made his way out of the building to the spot where last he knew Suren had been grounded. Aidan saw how the ground was settling once more, as though it had been disturbed far more recently than the 80 years since Suren was entombed there. 

Aidan turned to the spirit once more, confused and a little afraid. “Where’s Bishop!? Take me to Bishop!” he demanded.

Once again, the dust swirled around him, and Aidan found himself in an abandoned factory, alone save for the spirit.

“I told you to take me to Bishop! Where is he? What happened to everyone!? I need to see Bishop!” Aidan yelled, more distraught than he’d like to admit and every bit of it showing in his voice.

The spirit moved to the center of the floor as Aidan watched and demanded to see Bishop once more. Abruptly, the dust stopped swirling, and fell to the ground in a pile.

Aidan stared at the dust for a long moment before it hit him. That /was/ Bishop.

“No…” He shook his head and whispered, slowly walking toward the small mound of what was formerly his maker. “No. No. No. No!” Aidan repeated as a mantra, as though it would make the dust spring to life. “NO!” he screamed one last time, sinking to his knees and taking the dust in his hands.


	5. Stave 5: The End of It

Aidan’s cry echoed in the factory as it faded around him, and the noise shifted to the distant screech of an alarm clock.

The vampire opened his eyes and found himself in his own bed, clutching the bedsheets in his hands. He sat up quickly, throwing open the window and hissing at the sun as it streamed in. “There’s still time. I can change that future. There’s still time!” 

He ran into the hall, running into Josh. “It’s still the 25th right?” 

“Yeah. Merry Christmas?” Josh replied, not sure what was up with his friend.

“I’ve got to go!” Aidan started towards the stairs, but looked down at himself, “I’ve got to get dressed! I’ve got to-” he quickly went into his room and rifled through the pockets of yesterday’s jeans to find his wallet, pulling out some money and shoving it into Josh’s hand. “Make something nice for dinner tonight. I might be having company. And buy yourself a non-denominational winter holiday present.”

Josh looked at the money, and then up at where Aidan was, slightly confused, but Aidan had already taken off, changing into fresh clothes and sprinting down the stairs, stopping only when he saw Sally on the couch.

“Sally! Merry Christmas!” Aidan made a frantic sort of gesture, indicating that he would have hugged her if he could have. “I’ll see you tonight!” he said as he dashed out the door.

Sally looked at Josh, who was looking down the stairs, still confused. “The Grinch’s heart grew three sizes?” Sally suggested with a shrug.

Aidan started toward Bishop’s apartment before realizing he didn’t have a present. Dashing into the first open store he found, he looked at the items on the shelves, finding a gift bag and searching for something Bishop would like.

Settling on a pair of sunglasses something like ones he remembered Bishop wearing at one time, he paid quickly and rushed off to Bishop’s apartment.

Aidan knocked on the apartment door, oddly nervous, wondering how Bishop would react to him showing up.

It took a long moment for Bishop to open the door and the look of shock on his face was unmatched by any Aidan had seen before.

“Aidan…?”

“Merry Christmas.” Aidan replied. “I thought about your offer and decided I’d stop by…”

Bishop stared wide-eyed at the Aidan for a long moment before stepping out of the way of the door. “Come in. Merry Christmas.”

Aidan stepped inside the apartment, holding the gift bag out to Bishop. “I, uh, got you a present. It isn’t much, but it’s something.”

The elder vampire took the bag and opened it, pulling out the sunglasses. “Thank you, Aidan. I love them. There’s some gifts for you under the tree.” Bishop gestured to the tree. “Would you like something to eat? I wasn’t planning on going out today, so I have some blood in the fridge…”

Taking the presents from under the tree and carrying them over to the couch, Aidan smiled. “I’d like that.” 

Bishop returned with two warm cups of blood, not as good as fresh, but slightly better than hospital blood, having been in storage only a few hours instead of days.

The two vampires spent the day reminiscing and enjoying the holiday, Bishop being unable to articulate how much he appreciated Aidan's company, but for once, Aidan understood. 

Morning eased into afternoon, and Aidan invited Bishop to Christmas dinner, an invitation that Bishop graciously accepted.

Josh and Sally of course weren't expecting Bishop of all people to be Aidan's guest, but they all enjoyed eating or not eating a meal Josh had thrown together after work. 

It was the first of many exceptionally awkward dinners they would have together.

As the finished, and Josh began to clean up, he couldn't suppress uttering "And God bless us, every one."


End file.
